Friday, April 25, 2014

Kasauli - a land of amazing vistas and unavoidable peacocks

Kasauli is a quaint hill station in
Solan district in Himachal Pradesh, known for its old world British charm. It
is a town and a cantonment that was developed as a hill station by the British,
for its salubrious climate and verdant stretches of hills. Kasauli's old world
charm is preserved, thankfully, due to the "no new development" rule
by the Indian Armed Forces. Which makes it possible to see old colonial
bungalows, cobbled paths, and old style stores. Kasauli is about 35 to 40
kilometers from Kalka, the nearest railhead, and is off the Kalka - Shimla
route. As for what one can do in Kasauli - go on long walks down the winding
lanes and enjoy amazing vistas that open up as you
turn corners. A very peaceful place, it can be enjoyed in solitude as
well as in the company of near and dear ones.

Like most hill stations, Kasauli
also has a few places of interest that you can visit, like –

The Christ Church – It is a colonial
style structure, built very close to the bus stand and entry check point to
Kasauli. The church is functional with mass held on Sundays. It boasts of old
style interiors and stained glass paintings and windows.

Manki Point – It is a good
kilometer of hike to this point which has a small temple at its highest point.
This area is under the command of the Armed Forces and hence bags and cameras
are not allowed from the checkpoint. From the top, one can view Chandigarh and
the river Sutlej snaking its way in the plains.

Gilbert Trail - A good walk in the lap of nature which should not be missed by bird watchers and nature lovers.

Sunset Point

Of course, do make a point to walk
aimlessly to enjoy the old gabled houses and the market stalls that look at
least a century old. We followed a local family who were walking down to their
house and stopped a little away from the post office to just sit at a bend and
enjoy the views.

The market square is a small stretch
with benches on the sides. Mind the pestering monkeys if you are holding
something to eat. Enjoy cupfuls of tea and pakoras from shops opposite the
benches. In the evening, you are treated with something I bet you will not find
anywhere else – old time speakers that belt out songs from the 50s and the 60s
like ‘mere sapnon ki rani kab aayegi tu’,
‘yeh kaun chitrakar hai’, gunguna rahen hai bhawrein’, and many other such
delectable melodies. It is pure pleasure to sit around the place; it is
guaranteed to take you back a few decades. Money can’t buy such an experience,
money can’t create such magic….. one can be sure of that.

Mind you, Kasauli is not a place
filled with hotels or restaurants. The most famous and perhaps the only new age
restaurant is called Ross Commons. Apart from that there are a few dhaabas some
good ones. We visited one such small dhaaba in the market place. It had only about
4 tables and had a fixed number of dishes prepared. We ordered a shahi paneer
and a yellow dal tadka along with rotis and rice. The rotis came to the table,
hot, straight from the fire. The food all in all was simple and tasted homemade
and was cheap to boot.

The only down-side to Kasauli is the
strutting peacocks of the two legged kind who drive in from the nearby plains! Just
when you have lost yourself to the peaceful and verdant surroundings, the sound
of cars vrooming and harsh braking will bring you down crashing to earth. And
all you can do is soundlessly curse the testosterone high mundas who are busy
preening for the attention of the dressed to the nines peahens!!!

I wish these people would take their
loud music, loud screeching cars and loud everything to out of this awesome
place.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The peacocks and peahens are quite an eyesore lol. Unfortunately one can never avoid them as they will flock in from Chandigarh (you can bet every single one of them is at least connected to Chd, I should know. I go to school here) for a day out at the slightest pretext.